Arnold Schwarzenegger Goes Off on People Objecting to Masks: ‘Screw Your Freedom, Because With Freedom Comes Obligation and Responsibilities’

Arnold Schwarzenegger teed off on people who are refusing to wear masks, criticizing the argument that it infringes on their freedom.

The actor and former California governor got some attention for a comment he made in January encouraging people to listen to actual public health experts on covid-19.

“If your house is on fire, you don’t go on YouTube, you call the damn fire department. If you have a heart attack, you don’t check your Facebook group, you call an ambulance. If 9 doctors tell you you have cancer and need to treat it or you will die, and 1 doctor says the cancer will disappear, you should always side with the 9. In this case, virtually all of the real experts around the world are telling us the vaccine is safe and some people on Facebook are saying it isn’t,” he said at the time.

That post went viral on Twitter in the past few days, and Schwarzenegger elaborated in a conversation this week with Alexander Vindman and CNN’s Bianna Golodryga.

He expressed dismay about people rejecting masks and said there’s a lot of misinformation spreading. “There is a virus here, it kills people, and the only way we prevent it is we get vaccinated, we wear masks, we do social distancing, washing your hands all the time, and not just to think about ‘well, my freedom is being kind of disturbed here.”

“No. Screw your freedom, because with freedom comes obligations and responsibilities,” Schwarzenegger continued. “You cannot just say ‘I have the right to X, Y, and Z.’ When you affect other people, that is when it gets serious.”

As an example, he offered the hypothetical of someone refusing to obey traffic lights for the same reason.

“‘No one is going to tell me that… I have to stop at this traffic light here. I’m going to go right through it.’ Then you kill someone else and it is your doing.”

At one point Schwarzenegger added, “You have the freedom to wear no mask. But you know something? You’re a schmuck for not wearing a mask.”

You can watch the full discussion above (the relevant part starts at the 35-minute mark).